Dear All
MANY thanks for the very kind responses on walrus! There seems to be
lots of potential in this sort of investigation and we should certainly
move forward on it. We now have a scan of the chunk of tusk from Gásir
which we can email anyone interested. Please note that Howell Roberts
([log in to unmask]) is the excavator (with Archaeological Inst Iceland)
and he will be glad to consult and provide some (very nice) prelim
reports on the dig (still ongoing). I'll try to keep everyone posted on
progress with this.
I would also like to thank Jacqui for posting the NABO meeting notice
again. We are at the moment working hard to accommodate the really
impressive numbers of really excellent papers that have been submitted,
and I am sure that many will be of considerable interest to regular
ZOOARCH readers (everything from new interdisciplinary work in the
Faroes to evidence for systematic fluctuation in marine radiocarbon
reservoir) plus a great many "straight" Zooarch papers. We will also be
doing a demo of the long gestating CD based N Atlantic fish
identification manual (an upgrade of what was shown at last years ICAZ
fish working group meeting) handing out CD samples of the proposed data
archive project (with real datasets from Iceland to start it off) and it
looks like we will be having some really important synthesis papers
taking the larger view of economic change in this cool, wet, but
interesting area.
At this moment, we are in fact a bit swamped with great papers, and I
know that several good papers that have missed the 1 Jan deadline are
very worthy of inclusion. It may be the case that this excellent turnout
may make it impossible to fit into our scheduled venue in Copenhagen.
In the event that we can't manage to fit into the Copenhagen venue (they
are also simultaneously hosting an Inuit archaeology meeting) we may
have to change location for NABO 04 to the UK (we have a contingency
agreement already with one of our UK collaborating universities with
plenty of space for us). I am working to get a final decision on the
conference venue by the end of this week and will immediately post the
results by this coming Friday (Jan 23rd 2004).
If you are contributing a paper or planning to attend NABO 04, I urge
you to hang on till the end of this week before finalizing travel
arrangements. Apologies for the uncertainties, but we will get a final
answer on space issues very soon and widely publicize the outcome.
Please contact me if anyone has any questions or if you are in any doubt
if your abstract has been received. Many thanks for your patience.
Sincerely
Tom
Thomas H. McGovern, Professor
Coordinator North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO)
Director Hunter Bioarchaeology Laboratory
Anthropology Department, Hunter College CUNY
695 Park Ave, NYC 10021 USA
fax: 212 772 5423
phone: 212 772 5410
email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Julie Bond
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 5:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] fwd: [ZOOARCH] walrus again
Dear all,
my colleague Janet Montgomery replied to Tom's query, but asked me to
forward the email to the rest of the list as she though it might be of
more general interest;
Dear Professor McGovern
My colleague Julie Bond has passed your enquiry to me as I have used
strontium and lead isotope analysis to provenance human and animals
in the UK.
Strontium may not be much use in the case of marine animals
unfortunately, as it is pretty much indistinguishable between
all the seas and oceans of the world (after being transported to the
sea by rivers etc it stays there a long time in large quantities and
gets very well mixed). It depends how much of a terrestrial
contribution there is to the walrus diet.
Lead might work - the sea around the continents tends to reflect the
run-off from the land because lead is present in much lower quantities
than strontium and gets removed much quicker so there is less time for
it to mix and homogenise. As Greenland is very old and Iceland very
young on the geological scale there are is promising potential for
discriminating between the two - as long as industrial lead pollution
hasnt swamped the natural geological signatures in the region. For
example, you may be able to conclude that walrus ivory found on
Iceland has a geological signature that is much too old to have
originated from that island.
Pete Outridge of the Canadian Geological Survey has already done
lots of work in collaboration with Canadian Fisheries (refs. at end!)
on walrus, whale and beluga migration and stock discrimination in the
Canadian North Atlantic using lead and strontium - from memory, the
lead was successful but strontium not. Hildur Gestsdottir has done
strontium provenancing work on the human settlement of Iceland (I
believe, along with me, she is giving a paper in the session being
organised by Patricia Sutherland in Copenhagen). Jane Evans at the
British Geological Survey has been involved in study looking at bird
migration between Scotland and Iceland using, amongst other systems,
Sr isotopes - so there is some data out there that may be of use in
your proposed walrus study - with the proviso about marine Sr already
given.
I can give you Pete's or Jane's email address if you wish to contact
either direct, or I am happy to help if you need any further
information.
Best regards
Janet
-------------------
Janet Montgomery Ph.D.
NERC Research Fellow
Department of Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
Bradford, UK
BD7 1DP
[log in to unmask]
Tel +44 (0)1274 236551
Fax +44 (0)1274 235190
Born, E.W., Outridge, P., Riget, F.F., Hobson, K.A., Dietz, R., Oien,
N. & Haug, T. (2003). Population substructure of North Atlantic minke
whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) inferred from regional variation
of elemental and stable isotopic signatures in tissues. Journal of
Marine Systems, 43, 1-17.
Outridge, P.M. (2000). Lead biogeochemistry in the littoral zones of
south-central Ontario lakes, Canada, after the elimination of gasoline
lead additives. Water Air and Soil Pollution, 118, 179-201.
Outridge, P.M., Chenery, S.R., Babaluk, J.A. & Reist, J.D. (2002).
Analysis of geological Sr isotope markers in fish otoliths with
subannual resolution using laser ablation-multicollector-ICP- mass
spectrometry. Environmental Geology, 42, 891-899.
Outridge, P.M., Davis, W.J., Stewart, R.E.A. & Born, E.W. (2003).
Investigation of the stock structure of Atlantic walrus (Odobenus
rosmarus rosmarus) in Canada and Greenland using dental Pb isotopes
derived from local geochemical environments. Arctic, 56, 82-90.
Outridge, P.M., Hermanson, M.H. & Lockhart, W.L. (2002). Regional
variations in atmospheric deposition and sources of anthropogenic lead
in lake sediments across the Canadian Arctic. Geochimica Et
Cosmochimica Acta, 66, 3521-3531.
Outridge, P.M., Hobson, K.A., McNeely, R. & Dyke, A. (2002). A
comparison of modern and preindustrial levels of mercury in the teeth
of beluga in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, and walrus at
Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada. Arctic, 55, 123-132.
Outridge, P.M., Wagemann, R. & McNeely, R. (2000). Teeth as
biomonitors of soft tissue mercury concentrations in beluga,
Delphinapterus leucas. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 19,
1517-1522.
Stern, R.A., Outridge, P.M., Davis, W.J. & Stewart, R.E.A. (1999).
Reconstructing lead isotope exposure histories preserved in the growth
layers of walrus teeth using the SHRIMP II ion microprobe.
Environmental Science & Technology, 33, 1771-1775.
Stewart, R.E.A., Outridge, P.M. & Stern, R.A. (2003). Walrus
life-history movements reconstructed from lead isotopes in annual
layers of teeth. Marine Mammal Science, 19, 806-818.
Evans, R.D., Outridge, P.M. & Richner, P. (1994). Applications of
laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry to the
determination of environmental contaminants in calcified biological
structures. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 9, 985-989.
Evans, R.D., Richner, P. & Outridge, P.M. (1995). Micro-spatial
variations of heavy metals in the teeth of walrus as determined by
laser ablation ICP-MS: the potential for reconstructing a history of
metal exposure. Archives of Environmental Contamination and
Toxicology, 28, 55-60.
Outridge, P.M., Evans, R.D., Wagemann, R. & Stewart, R.E.A. (1997).
Historical trends of heavy metals and stable lead isotopes in beluga
(Delphinapterus leucas) and walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) in the
Canadian Arctic. The Science of the Total Environment, 203, 209-219.
Outridge, P.M., Hughes, R.J. & Evans, R.D. (1996). Determination of
Trace Metals in Teeth and Bones by Solution Nebulization ICP-MS.
Atomic Spectroscopy, 17, 1-8.
Outridge, P.M. & Stewart, R.E.A. (1999). Stock discrimination of
Atlantic walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) in the eastern Canadian
Arctic using lead isotope and element signatures in teeth. Canadian
Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science, 56, 105-112.
* This e-mail message was sent with Execmail V5.1 *
-------------------
Janet Montgomery Ph.D.
NERC Research Fellow
Department of Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
Bradford, UK
BD7 1DP
[log in to unmask]
Tel +44 (0)1274 236551
Fax +44 (0)1274 235190
* This e-mail message was sent with Execmail V5.1 *
--- End Forwarded Message ---
----------------------
Julie Bond
Department of Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
Bradford, UK
BD7 1DP
[log in to unmask]
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